


Watch out

by mkhhhx



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Light Angst, M/M, Polyamory, Time Travel, Watch making, dramarama, messy timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 18:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18629227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mkhhhx/pseuds/mkhhhx
Summary: Hyungwon is quite bad at timing things, for a watch maker.





	Watch out

**Author's Note:**

> For the "parallel universe" square.

Changkyun loves watching him work. Dainty fingers screwing, loosening and gluing all the tiny pieces together, slowly creating a small masterpiece. After all, most of Hyungwon’s watches are custom made, from the finest, most expensive materials.

He knows it takes hours and it’s something Changkyun learned to enjoy over time, sitting at an armchair across Hyungwon’s desk, studying or playing on his laptop as they wordlessly keep company to each other. Hyungwon seems to always appreciate it, he doesn’t like being alone, even if he doesn’t show it.

It’s usually quiet, because Changkyun is aware that distracting Hyungwon can be a major drawback to his work, but this time he is having a hard time keeping his thoughts to himself.

“We should tell him.” He says quietly, looking at Hyungwon’s shoulders dropping right before he straightens to look at Changkyun.

“What?” Hyungwon asks, taking the magnifying monocle off of his eye, leaving his tiny screwdriver on the heavy wooden desk.

“We should tell him, Minhyuk.” Changkyun repeats and Hyungwon stares at him.

“You know my opinion on this.” Hyungwon breathes out. “There’s no reason to tell him.”

“He’s our boyfriend! He deserves to know as much as I do.”

“Changkyun” Hyungwon’s hand shakes, it always does when he becomes too anxious. “I never wanted you to know either and it’s not a matter of trust or anything like that. It’s dangerous to know.”

“He still deserves to.” Changkyun hates seeing Hyungwon like this, cornered to discuss something he clearly doesn’t want to, but they should stop beating around the bush at some point.

“He’s way more emotional than you, Changkyun.” Hyungwon puts his glasses on, his eyes tired behind the thick lenses. “He might think I’m some kind of creep, might not want to see me anymore.”

“He would never do that” Changkyun reassures him, but knows where Hyungwon’s idea comes from. Minhyuk could always be a little too dramatic when reacting to minimal things. And this is no minimal thing. “He loves you so much.”

“I’m scared” Hyungwon suddenly says. “I’ve made so many wrong choices. I don’t want him to know.”

“I’ll help you tell him” Changkyun whispers.

 

He’s seen things he shouldn’t have. Like that man who came inside the watch shop shouting at Hyungwon for giving him a “malfunctioning watch” or the lady who wailed at the very carpet Changkyun is stepping at the moment because she couldn’t bring her son back, as she was saying. And at the time he didn’t know any better, only though the old watch shop, seemingly stuck in time was an attraction to weird customers.

Most importantly, he’s seen Hyungwon breaking down too many times. And now he seems close to it again, the corners of his eyes red and wet, because he too wants to tell Minhyuk the truth. Changkyun can see it.

“I don’t want to mess this up, mess us up.” Hyungwon mutters, playing with a stray screw in his hands.

Changkyun gets up from his chair and walks up to him, sits at the corner of the desk, making sure the space is free of any tools and materials.

“He’s gonna be shocked, like I was, he might not even believe it at the start.” Changkyun cups Hyungwon’s face, caressing his cheeks and the top of his head slowly. “When you tell him the full story, he’s gonna understand, eventually.”

Hyungwon exhales, taking Changkyun’s hands into his own.

“It was bad enough for you.” He says and Changkyun recalls that day. The day he discovered that something was so wrong with the watchmaking shop.

 

They have been dating only for a few months, all three of them, and he had already started spending time with Hyungwon while Minhyuk was still at university.

It was a quiet afternoon, only a few customers coming in for minimal things, like battery changes for their watches and Hyungwon decided to go out and bring some take out for them, ensured Changkyun he’d be right back.

And Changkyun’s curiosity took the best of him. He wanted to see all the shiny bits and pieces, the batteries and the leather watchbands Hyungwon kept at his drawers. So he started searching around, opening and shutting, finding out there was nothing much entertaining, to a not professional watchmaker, at least. That, until he reached the drawers at the very back of the room, spider webs at their handles and dust on top of them. They looked like Hyungwon hadn’t opened them in a long time.

So Changkyun drew one out, his eyes falling at the contents, a dozen or more watches all similar to each other, some broken, some looking like they have never been used.

And at the bottom, polaroids, so many of them. Changkyun had taken as many as he could grab in his hands to inspect them in amusement. Two men at a dojo, a café, an empty road and then Hyungwon in a gray suit, carrying an umbrella. Changkyun was feeling that what he was doing was wrong, but still didn’t stop, not until he saw a familiar face.

A polaroid of Minhyuk from when they were kids. Changkyun stared at it for long, panic settling into him. The photo must have been taken at least fifteen years agobut the date at the left corner is twelve years at the future from the current day. Nothing made sense.

And he kept staring at it until Hyungwon was back with bags full of food and calling his name. And he was still staring at the photo when he started screaming at Hyungwon and asking where he got this.

 

It took a lot of explaining from Hyungwon. Hours and hours of talking, words that sounded foreign and so weird in Changkyun’s ears.

“I make time and space travel watches” Hyungwon had told him, “as my father did before me, but he was more successful at it. I only mess people’s lives while trying to help them.”

“Did you try to save Minhyuk’s live?” Changkyun had a hard time processing. But all the people coming to the store to cry, to beg or to blame Hyungwon made sense now.

And Hyungwon had told him that at another universe another set of a Minhyuk and Changkyun exists. And they were childhood friends, like this ones, but their story didn’t have a good ending.

“I was being chased there, you were trying to help me, but we knew we didn’t have enough time.” Hyungwon had explained. “All you had asked me was to see Minhyuk again. You did, for a bit only.”

“And how…?”

“I gave Minhyuk a watch to come and see you, even if it was for only a while. He was sent back by the police soon.” Hyungwon was damping Changkyun’s sweater now. “But I think you were both happy with even that.”

 

Changkyun remembers Hyungwon asking him and Minhyuk how they met on their second or third date, smiling so warmly when Minhyuk told him they were childhood friends. And he has an unlikely thought.

“Were we lovers before, at another universe, hyung?”

Hyungwon looked up at him, mouthing a tiny “yes”.

 

It must have been very weird when Hyungwon went to the bookstore just to buy some pens and the kid behind the counter was Changkyun, a Changkyun Hyungwon had never met before. Maybe that’s why Hyungwon kept going there, buying minimal, funny things like pencils and erasers until Changkyun had managed the courage to tell the cute stranger something along the lines of “You are very handsome and I have a boyfriend but we…if you’d like to try this type of arrangement we would love it.”

 

It’s been three whole years, Minhyuk graduated, Changkyun is almost there and Hyungwon has stopped traveling back and forth in time and universes or giving away watches long ago. Yet, Minhyuk still doesn’t know.

“I’ll think about Minhyuk.” Hyungwon finally says, Changkyun sliding from the desk on his lap to embrace him. “We should-we should find a good timing to tell him.”

“Yes” Changkyun agrees and Hyungwon’s eyes are finally clearing up.

“I’m bad with good timings” Hyungwon smiles sadly and Changkyun can’t help but laugh a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
